A content analysis of the coverage of the year 2000 congressional elections in the Star-Press newspaper

Abstract:

This study falls into the same category with numerous other studies examining the relationship between the outcome of political elections and media coverage of the political candidates prior to the elections. According to Graber (1993), the earliest works that have become research classics were done by Lazarsfeld, Berelson, and Gaudet (1944); Campbell, Gurin and Miller (1954) among others. Graber (1993) writes that in the 40's and 50's the electorate "adhered closely to partisan lines, regardless of media coverage" (Graber 1993, 13). Graber (1993) suggests that more recently the political "party allegiance has weakened substantially among many voters, so that the opportunities for media influence on vote choice are far greater" (Graber 1993, 13). If this hypothesis is true, then the link between media coverage and the results of political elections should be only more obvious today than it was before. This study sets out to test the relationship between media coverage and voting patterns in one of the recent campaigns and elections, namely in Indiana's second congressional district in the year 2000.This study juxtaposes the results of content analysis of The Star Press, the local newspaper in Muncie, Indiana, with the outcome of the vote tally in Delaware County, where The Star Press is circulated. Such a juxtaposition allows to find the correlation between the coverage and election results in accordance with Graber's (1993) hypothesis that "more news=more votes" (Graber 1971, 510). However, the relationship between the news and votes will be complicated in this paper by analysis of the news generation rate, or the ratio of specific events to the amount of articles devoted to their coverage for each candidate involved. Such an approach should answer the question of whether the greater amount of news reflects greater input (more activities, more speeches given=more visibility in the news) by the candidates. Greater coverage might not necessarily mean bias in the newspaper's coverage, but reflects greater work performed by the candidate.The analysis of The Star Press' political coverage, apart from testing Graber's (1993) hypothesis, scrutinizes the reportorial balance of the newspaper on covering the Democratic and Republican issues. Although there were four candidates for the congressional seat, the two primary winners were chosen for this study. They are the Republican candidate Mike Pence and the Democratic candidate Robert Rock. Eventually the Republican candidate Mike Pence won the race. He is a former radio and television journalist from Edinburgh, Indiana. He was 41 years old at the time of the elections and had previously run for Congress. His opponent Robert Rock, aged 39, is an attorney from Anderson, Indiana. Unlike Pence, Rock had no previous political experience.